An Analysis of the Customer Behaviour of Ikea

AN ANALYSIS OF THE CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR OF IKEA

Our main objective in this project is to get a grasp of the customer profile of IKEA and analyze the consumer behavior, bearing in mind their needs, expectations and habits so as to come up with a set of customer behavior related recommendations for the company.

INTRODUCTION: THE COMPANY’S PROFILE

IKEA is an originally Swedish furniture and housewares company operating in 42 companies with a total of 70,000 employees. The company was founded in 1940s upon the objective to offer affordable but stylish home furniture that addresses the needs of all social classes in the society. It is currently owned by the INGKA Group.

1965 was a major turning point of IKEA when they opened a large retail store near Stockholm, which was a highly radical move. At the time, it was unusual to open such a vast store with facilities such as indoor seating, baby carriages and parking for a high number of cars. The most revolutionary characteristic of this store was the flat-pack storage to avoid “transporting and storing air”. This so-called flat-pack storage is fundamentally the reason behind IKEA’s success today according to many critics. Flat-pack storage also brought about the needs for mass production, and thus, big specialized factories were constructed worldwide to conduct manufacturing operations as efficiently as possible.

Another significant aspect to this new store was the self-service concept of giving customers the independent to choose the product they want on their own with relevant guidance about details on products through their labels. Such novelties were major factors to decrease operational costs, which lowered prices while maintaining the same quality. Thus, altogether, these brought about an instant success that started spreading worldwide soon after.

RESEARCH ABOUT IKEA’S CUSTOMER BASE AND THEIR BEHAVIOUR

Our main method of research about IKEA’s customer behavior was to conduct interviews with customers we encountered at the IKEA store in Bayrampasa. The opportunity to have a conversation with customers from different social classes helped establish a broad vision to this research project.

INTERVIEWS WITH THE IKEA CUSTOMERS

For the BUS471 course group project, we have taken on the task of researching IKEA’s customer behavior. This research will generally outline the reasons why IKEA is preferred by the customers and their motivation to make purchases from this company. Also, we want to address how satisfied the customers are with the service they receive.

Since IKEA is a store on its own, we have decided to visit an IKEA store and meet the customers on first hand and also witness how fundamental operations take place in real life (e.g. employees’ attitude, the organization of the store).